Why do we love Japan so much? What drives us to obsess over its culture, language, food, and everything else? Why do we keep coming back day after day to read articles about a country that, for many of us, is on the other side of the planet? For some the answer is easy, but for others, not so much.

One group for whom foreigners’ love of Japan is especially difficult to comprehend is the Japanese people themselves. Many of them have no idea why so many of us would bother to take an interest in Japan, much less learn its intimidating language. In an effort to try to figure this out, one of our RocketNews24 Japanese writers who lives in England did some investigate journalism and interviewed three students studying Japanese at the University of Cambridge.

Living in a city is great in many respects–there is an abundance of cultural activities, great restaurants, museums, music, and unique people to meet. But all those unique people, unfortunately, need places to stay! Of course, if you have a full-time job, you can probably find somewhere to hang your hat, but for students or others living a tight budget, even a studio apartment can start to seem like a luxury. For many, that means shared housing, which is a great solution if you have a good friend to stay with–not so much if you need your privacy.

One team of Chinese students may have found a solution through the magic of ergonomic design and clever use of space. Check out their mock-up of this cozy two-meter-wide (6.5-foot-side) apartment below!

I thought summers in America were hot, until I moved to Asia and learned firsthand what a hot summer is really like. In Japan, China and other parts of East Asia, the summer can be brutal to the point that people flock to public pools by the thousands, risking other people’s disgusting mud butt and possible drowning by crowd crush just to enjoy a few moments in the tepid water.

But a number of enterprising Chinese college students have apparently figured out a genius workaround: Just put a pool in your own dorm room.

Spring is the time of graduation ceremonies in Japan and while the junior high school students are ruffling feathers with their risqué photos, the high school kids are getting ready for that life-changing transition to college life.

After countless hours of prep courses and after-school cram schools they have acquired the knowledge to enter tertiary education, but very little instruction is given on how to adapt to the social life of university.

That’s where manga comes in. To fill that void of knowledge, Naver has compiled a list of comics that have hit home with university students in Japan. Sure, some of them deal with unrealistic subject matter such as conversations with bacteria, but they still manage to capture the general atmosphere of college life pretty well.

So without further ado, if you’re about to make the switch to a campus or if you’re just looking for a new manga series to get into, sit back and enjoy this list of university-themed manga.

Awesome Course Schedule, an app released last year by Japanese content provider Labit, has been rapidly gaining traction with students at Japanese universities, because it allows them to rate and review their courses. Read More

The Japanese web portal goo recently asked its users their biggest regret from their college years. It seems in Japan as well, those heady days of freedom in university offer more than plentiful chances for screw-ups. Youth is one factor, but compared to middle school and high school students, university students have a whole lot more time on their hands and a whole lot less supervision, leading to a lot of navel-gazing, time-wasting and jack-assery. Some things are true the world over, I guess!Read More